take them home
ourselves to our several villages and towns."

The king said that the secretaries were preparing the decrees as fast
as they could, and the men might depend that those which had not yet
been delivered would be sent as soon as they were ready to the
villages and towns.

"Go back to your men," he added, "and tell them that they had better
return peaceably to their homes. The decrees will all arrive there in
due time."

But Walter did not seem at all inclined to go. He looked around upon
the king's attendants, and seeing one that he had known before, a
squire, who was in immediate attendance on the king's person, he said
to him,

"What! You here?"

This squire was the king's sword-bearer. In addition to the king's
sword, which it was his duty to carry, he was armed with a dagger of
his own.

Walter turned his horse toward the squire and said,

"Let me see that dagger that you have got."

"No," said the squire, drawing back.

"Yes," said the king, "let him take the dagger."

The king was not at all afraid of the rebel, and wished to let him see
that he was not afraid of him.

So the squire gave Walter the dagger. Walter took it and examined it
in all its parts very carefully, turning it over and over in his hands
as he sat upon his horse. It was very richly ornamented, and Walter
had probably never had the opportunity to examine closely any thing so
beautifully finished before.

After having satisfied himself with examining the dagger, he turned
again to the squire:

"And now," said he, "let me see your sword."

"No," said the squire, "this is the king's sword, and it is not going
into the hands of such a lowborn fellow as you. And, moreover," he
added, after pausing a moment and looking at Walter with an
expression of defiance, "if you and I had met somewhere alone, you
would not have dared to talk as you have done, not for a heap of gold
as high as this church."

There was a famous church, called the Church of St. Bartholomew, near
the place where the king and his party had halted.

"By the powers," said Walter, "I will not eat this day before I have
your head."

Seeing that a quarrel was impending, the mayor of London and a dozen
horsemen rode up and surrounded Walter and the squire.

"Scoundrel!" said the mayor, "how dare you utter such threats as
those?"

"What business is that of yours?" said Walter, turning fiercely toward
the mayor. "What have you to do with it?"

"Seize